This is a scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the fifth in the 2019 edition of Scouring of the Shire. As with the previous scenario in this series, I'm having to skip ahead because the fourth scenario needs Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and he's not available yet.
This scenario sees Sid Briarthorn (a new GW-only Ruffian leader) and his thugs attempting to arrest Will Whitfoot, the (book canon) Mayor of Hobbiton. If Evil can Put 'em in Chains (a Ruffian special rule) and take him off any board edge, they win. Good wins by having Will escape off the southern board edge under his own volition.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good forces are Will Whitfoot (in the middle, with the gold triangles on his base) and a dozen Hobbit Militia.
Facing them are Sid Briarthorn (middle, with gold triangles) and a dozen assorted Ruffians.
I think something's amiss with the Layout section of this scenario. The board dimensions are supposed to be 2'x2' but within that space you're supposed to fit four hobbit holes as well as trees and other scatter terrain. In the scenario board picture, the hobbit holes are sized the same as they are on a 4'x4' layout. So either the 2'x2' dimensions are a typo, or those are some darn tiny hobbit holes.
A cut-n-paste error in the dimensions seemed the most probable to me at first, but several of the setup areas show 3" radii, and the size of the circles does look proportional to a 2'x2' board. So I decided the 2'x2' was probably correct. Not being able to fit my hobbit holes in that space, I just made a generic hobbit-y looking area. There's supposed to be a road running down the middle of the board, but since roads have no effect in the game and I didn't have any, I just omitted them.
Will Whitfoot begins in the middle of the board, with his defenders deployed within 3". The Militia set up so as to allow Will to move towards his goal edge in the south, while maximizing the ability to Throw Stones.
Sid Briarthorn sets up on the South edge, while the other Ruffians are divided into three groups and placed on the west, south, and east edges.
Between the initial deployments and victory conditions, the northern half of the board seems irrelevant. Sure, Sid could try to drag Will off to the north to maximize Will's distance from the south edge should he escape. But Evil wins by taking him off any board edge, so why not just use the closest one to minimize the number of chances that Will has to escape in the first place?
Good starts narrative play with Priority, as always.
Will decides to move south, taking five bodyguards with him. The other Militia stay put and stoop for stones.
The Ruffian archers also stay put, as their arrows outrange the hobbits stones and they hope to pick off a few before joining the scrum. The other Ruffians advance toward Will. The two whipmen miss with their whips.
The shooting phase sees the hobbits throwing a barrage of stones; though the Wound rolls are underwhelming, so many stones hit that two Ruffians lay dead at the end at the end of the phase anyway. The Ruffian archers (off camera) return the fire to no effect.
There are only two Combats this turn, against Will's foremost guards. The Ruffians win both, and slay one of the hobbits.
Casualties: Good 1, Evil 2
Good Priority, 4-3.
Evil has a 2:1 Might advantage but it doesn't seem worth spending half Sid's Might just yet. So Good proceeds.
The Ruffians are now in Charge range, so there's little point in stooping for stones. So the hobbits engage everyone except the archers, who are too far away, and Sid, who causes Terror in the scenario. It's better for Good just to move to block him than to roll to engage him and fail (a 42% chance). Will moves for an end run to the south edge.
The archers decide they'd be more effective in Combat, so they take a full move towards the fun. Sid moves to engage the hobbit blocking his way to the Mayor.
There's no Shooting this turn. At the beginning of the Fight Phase, Will spends one of his Will points to activate his Mayor of Hobbiton rule, giving a Banner effect to hobbits within 6".
Combat has ups and downs for both sides. The surrounded Ruffian goes down as you would expect, and a hobbit fighting two Ruffians manages to win his Combat despite the odds, though he fails to Wound.
In return the Ruffians manage to win and Wound in two other combats.
The big surprise is the hobbit facing Sid, who gets a '5' against Sid's '2','1' and so wins! There's no chance of a kill as Sid has two Wounds, but it would be nice to take him down a peg. Alas, the dice gods cease to favor the little guy and he muffs his Wound roll.
Casualties: Good 3, Evil 3
Good Priority, 4-1.
Evil sees the chance to Charge Will, and so, unlike last turn, this does seems like a good opportunity for a Heroic Move. So Sid declares, and Will counters. Luck is with Evil, though, and Sid and his henchmen surround the Mayor.
Good retaliates by engaging all of the Ruffians on the board. Will again invokes his Mayoral power to act as a banner.
Given the number of engagements and the relative squishiness of the troops, the Combat phase is remarkably unbloody: only one Ruffian dies and no hobbits are lost at all. In the Sid & Will showdown, Sid wins. He reaches for his irons and just barely succeeds (rolling the minimum '3') in clapping them on Will and capturing him. Now to take him to the Lockholes!
In the End Phase Will can and does try to escape, but he doesn't roll the '6' and remains in Sid's evil clutches.
Casualties: Good 3 (plus captured Will), Evil 4
Evil Priority, 4-1.
Good has no Might so has to let Evil proceed. Sid throws Will over his shoulder and moves 3" away from the battle towards the South edge. The other Ruffians move to tie up the hobbits. The whipman in the center takes out a hobbit with his whip, then moves to enage another, where, in the Combat Phase, his luck deserts him and he is the only other casualty of this turn.
Will would have liked to use his Mayoral power again this turn. I think in previous editions of the game, it would be ambiguous whether he could or not. Allowing it would have made better drama, the other hobbits responding to his capture by upping their game. But the power is clearly spelled out in the rules as an "Active" power, meaning it can't be used when the character is paralysed (which being put in chains effectively is). Good job on the rules writers!
At the end of the turn, Will again fails to escape.
Casualties: Good 4 (plus captured Will), Evil 5
Good Priority, 5-2.
No hobbits can reach Sid due to their slow 4" movement. So Evil lets the hobbits proceed.
There's not much Good can do. The Ruffians are mostly engaged, a couple hobbits trying to get close to the escaping Sid. In return the Ruffians Charge all but one hobbit. Sid moves to the south edge of the board, poised for the win.
Combat is yet again fairly unlethal, with one man from each side going down. And Will again fails his escape roll.
Casualties: Good 5 (plus captured Will), Evil 6
Good Priority, 6-3.
Sid having saved his last Might point pays off, as he uses it to call a Heroic Move and walks off the board with Will in chains. Evil Victory!
I think Good has a tough time here. The Ruffians aren't very impressive troops, but the hobbit Militia are even worse, so given the equal numbers here it's difficult (though not impossible) for them to come out ahead.
All of the hobbits should have stayed put on turn 1, maybe? The extra turn of rock throwing might have made a difference in thinning out the Ruffians.
Probably taking Will off the south edge was a mistake on Evil's part. I measured and the west edge was an extra turn away; at the time it seemed good to avoid the extra possible escape attempt. But had Will escaped on Turn 5 so near the south edge, it's not too hard to imagine a path to Good victory: Good wins Turn 6 Priority and Sid calls a Heroic Move (as happened) and Charges Will. Sid then either loses the Combat or fails to (re)clap the chains on Will. Good gets Turn 7 Priority, and Will strolls off the board. No guarantees for Good there, but it wouldn't have required that much in the way of unlikely luck.
It's hard to argue with the result, though. In the books Will Whitfoot does get put the Lockholes.